
The M1 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, while the M2 supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Some more significant differences between the Mac Mini M2 and M1 come in wireless connectivity. It can even support 4K monitors at 240Hz if you wanted to pair a gaming display like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 with your Mac Mini (you probably shouldn’t). It comes with two additional Thunderbolt 4 connections, enabling up to three displays or up to a single 8K monitor. The Mac Mini M2 Pro has a couple of advantages, as well. It’s a small change, but it’s vital for multi-monitor setups. However, you can swap the HDMI connection for a second Thunderbolt display on the M2 Mac Mini, which supports up to a 5K screen like Apple’s Studio Display. On both, you can drive two displays - up to 6K at 60Hz through a Thunderbolt connection and up to 4K at 60Hz through HDMI. The M2 model, however, supports Thunderbolt 4 while the M1 is locked to Thunderbolt 3. The base Mac Mini M2 and original M1 both come with two Thunderbolt ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI connection, Ethernet, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Mac Mini M2 and M1 have an identical set of ports with a small, but important, caveat. Ports and connectivity Alex Blake/Digital Trends It’s possible the Mac Mini M1 will drop further in price over the next few months, but the Mac Mini M2 is by far the better deal right now. Unfortunately, shopping on secondhand marketplaces like BackMarket and eBay doesn’t net any better deals. Even jumping up to 512GB of storage brings the price to $640, and you’ll spend nearly $1,000 for 16GB of Unified Memory and 1TB of storage. That’s the only good deal available, though.


The base model with the M1, 8GB of Unified Memory, and 256GB of storage is down to $470 through Apple’s store. AppleĪpple no longer sells the Mac Mini M1 new, but you can score a deal shopping for refurbished models. It has similar upgrades available as the base model, though it can climb to 32GB of Unified Memory and 8TB of SSD storage (the latter of which comes with a cool $2,400 premium). This model starts at $1,300 for 10 CPU cores, 16 GPU cores, 16GB of Unified Memory, and 512GB of storage. Unlike the previous generation, Apple is offering its M2 Pro inside the Mac Mini, as well. You can add up to 24GB of Unified Memory for a $400 upcharge, 2TB of storage for an additional $800, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet for another $100. You can spend much more if you configure the machine higher, though. For that price, you get the M2 processor with eight CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, along with 8GB of Unified Memory and 256GB of storage.

The base price for the Mac Mini M2 is $600, which alone is $100 less than the price the Mac Mini M1 debuted at. The best desktop computers for 2023: Dell, HP, Apple, and moreīest laptop deals: Save on Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo
